


Lovefool

by swingtwigs (featherytongue)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, M/M, also vague fashion knowledge based on watching lots of project runway, warning?? lots of flirting??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-22 18:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21081257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/featherytongue/pseuds/swingtwigs
Summary: How Not to Flirt: Call them beautiful in a language they can understand.





	Lovefool

**Author's Note:**

> To the person who prompted #W077: I had fun writing this! i hope you enjoy it ;;
> 
> To my beta, Em: Thank you so much for holding my hand throughout this whole fic. it wouldnt have been posted, if it werent for you

_Late_.

That's the only thing Yukhei can think of as he runs through the automatic gates.

_Late_.

He keeps thinking as he sprints down the stairs to his platform.

_Late_.

The only word that pops into his mind as he reaches the train's door just as it closes.

A swear word at the tip of his tongue when the doors suddenly open. Yukhei sees a stranger lift his finger off a button on the train's door.

_Not late_. Yukhei thinks to himself as he steps onto the train with the stranger right next to him.

The stranger smiles, _Wow, he is stunning. The crinkles by his eyes? Adorable_, and says, "I saved your life, didn't I?"

Yukhei's too distracted by the stranger's good looks to think of a reply.

But before he can thank the stranger, Yukhei is interrupted by his phone ringing. _Bambam_. Yukhei almost forgot that he was late for his presentation with Bambam. The dude is probably freaking out.

The moment he accepts the call, all he hears is Bambam asking him _where he is, does he know how late he is, if he doesn't get his ass at the lecture hall right this second, he's as good as dead and—_

"Hello to you too, Bambam." Yukhei replies.

"DUDE, WE PROMISED TO MEET UP 15 MINUTES AGO? WHERE ARE YOU?"

"I'm running a little late, dude, but listen—" Yukhei tries to explain before Bambam cuts him off again.

"The only thing I want to listen to right now is you opening the doors, and getting your ass here before Prof Kwon gets here and fails us because you’re not here yet."

"You need to listen to me," Yukhei insists before switching to Thai. "The most beautiful guy saved my ass... no, _our_ asses. I swear, if it weren't for him, I don't think I'd be on this train right now! Did you know that those buttons on the train doors have a function?"

"You mean you're not on campus yet?! You're still on the train?! YUKHEI, PROMISE ME YOU'LL GET HERE IN TIME?—"

"I will, but please listen to me, Bambam. I've never been one to believe in love at first sight, but I think I'm in love..."

Bambam takes a deep breath and says "So you're speaking to me in Thai right now because you don't want this stranger to know that you're in _wuv_ with him?"

"I don't want to freak him out, man. How would you feel if you heard someone you just met say they fell in love with you?"

"Yeah, not gonna lie, that would be creepy. But hey, dude, are you sure he doesn't speak Thai?"

Yukhei freezes. He didn't think of that.

_Oh god. _

Yukhei sneaks a glance at the stranger. Fortunately, he has headphones on, and is bobbing his head to whatever song he’s listening to. _God, even when he does something as casual as bob his head to music, he looks beautiful_.

"Earth to Yukhei? Oh my god, have you been caught by the Thai-speaking beautiful stranger? Is he moving to the other end of the train now?"

Yukhei scoffs. "You wish, Bambam. He has headphones on. I don't think he can hear me."

"But you forget how loud you can be sometimes."

"His headphones look like the expensive noise-canceling ones. I'm confident he can't hear me," Yukhei says smugly.

"Whatever, dude. Are you gonna get here soon, or what? Everyone else is here except you. God, I knew I shouldn't have made you bring all the materials. I should've listened to—" Bambam starts to ramble again, and Yukhei cuts in before he can go any further.

"Chill, dude. I'm, like, two stops away. _Oh_, the stranger just turned around and showed me his profile. His nose has the most perfect slope. How can someone be this beautiful?"

Bambam lets out a groan. "You literally just met this guy, but you're already whipped. I need to see this dude, can you take a picture of him or something?"

"Dude, that sounds high-key creepy. I'm not gonna do that!"

"You draw the imaginary creep line at taking a pic of him but not at declaring you’ve fallen in love with him?" Yukhei can hear the incredulity in Bambam's voice.

"I dunno, man." Yukhei shakes his head slowly as though Bambam can see it. "I'd feel weird about someone taking a picture of me without my consent," Yukhei continues as he admires the stranger's face. His skin looks so amazing that Yukhei is tempted to reach out, and poke his cheeks. Yukhei can't find a single flaw on the stranger's face.

"Okay, then ask for a picture of him? Or better yet, just ask for his number."

The lightbulb above Yukhei's head flickers to life with a bit of difficulty because Yukhei has to shuffle away from the door when the train stops, not wanting to block anyone's way.

"You're right, why didn't I think of that?" Yukhei immediately hangs up, and moves back to his original spot next to the beautiful stranger, except he isn’t there any more so Yukhei looks around to see if he had sat down. Yukhei realises that the stranger had gotten off just as the door closes. It takes Yukhei a few moments to realise that Bambam has been spamming him on Line, probably offended by Yukhei hanging up on him in favour of scoring a date with the beautiful stranger.

Yukhei just replies to Bambam's rant with a ':('.

_"What's wrong now?" _Bambam replies.

_"The beautiful stranger stole something from me"_

_"Wtf? Dont tell me he stole our presentation materials bc im gonna find him n kick his ass"_

_"He stole my heart :("_

"_Ur an idiot. pls just get here as soon as u can"_

_"Roger that,"_ Yukhei replies before stepping onto the platform, and sprinting off to make it in time for the presentation.

♡

Yukhei basically kicks down the door to the lecture hall, a little sweaty from his run. Fortunately for him, his professor isn’t there yet. Yukhei is safe from her wrath at least. Now he just has to face Bambam's. And Yukhei knows, if looks could kill, he'd be in the astral realm now, judging by the daggers Bambam’s throwing him from the front of the lecture hall.

Yukhei runs down the stairs to greet Bambam properly and apologise. Before he gets to do that, their professor sweeps into the hall. Yukhei remembers then that Bambam and he are up first, and that he hasn't been able to look at his notes properly. Yukhei's nerves worsen. After all, he doesn't want to feed more coal to Bambam's fire right now. So he decides to turn on the charm and put on his most suave smile for his professor.

"Professor Kwon! You look lovely today. That blue is exquisite on you!" Yukhei says.

She just smiles back. "Thank you."

Yukhei pushes the limits a bit more. "Did you get a tan? And there’s this beautiful glow on you."

Professor Kwon hums. "Yes, I did get a bit tanned. I was at a conference in Bali. I just flew in this morning, actually."

Yukhei’s little plan seems to be working. “You just flew in this morning? I never would’ve guessed! You look like you just got out of a spa. I don’t think I would look half as good if I just got off a long-haul flight."

"Alright, what do you want? Do you want me to postpone today's presentation?"

Professor Kwon looks Yukhei dead in the eyes and says, "Because that isn't happening."

This makes Yukhei laugh, the nervous kind.

He hopes she doesn't notice, "No, no! I just wanted to tell you how beautiful you are!"

Professor Kwon looks unconvinced but she nods, saying thank you again as she sits down. "Alright, which pair is up first?"

_Oh well._ Yukhei sighs and makes his way up onto the platform to begin the presentation with Bambam.

♡

Fortunately, Yukhei manages to finish the presentation without much trouble, despite being less prepared than he wanted to be. He got the audience to engage, and even coaxed laughter from Prof Kwon. That should give Bambam less reason to kill Yukhei for this morning. Still, the first thing Yukhei says to him after their presentation is "Sorry".

"Yeah, you'd better be." Bambam replies after Yukhei repeats his apology as the lecture hall clears out. "You were late and I had to listen to you gush about some beautiful stranger you saw on the train."

"I overslept, and that's entirely my fault. And I gushed about him to you because he was beautiful."

"Okay, but so was that guy at the coffee shop last week, and the girl at the bookstore two days ago, and Prof Kim Jongin. You think lots of people are beautiful." Bambam points out.

Yukhei stops packing and turns to look at Bambam. "That's because they are!" Yukhei grabs Bambam by the shoulders and shakes him. "All these beautiful people around us! I must appreciate them."

Bambam frees himself from Yukhei's hold and says, "Let's be real. You're gonna forget about this guy by the time you see another one of these beautiful people." He walks on ahead in the direction of the exit.

"So be it." Yukhei sighs. He slings his bag over his shoulder and takes a couple of strides to catch up with his friend. "But the Beautiful Stranger shall always remain in my heart, for he has saved _both_ our asses today. You should be thankful."

Bambam rolls his eyes. "I am, but I feel like you're being super dramatic about him, that's all."

Yukhei just purses his lips in response. "Anyway, we finished the presentation and I think that calls for a celebratory lunch!"

"Okay, but you're buying. That's the least you can do after this morning."

"Deal!" Yukhei says, holding the door open for Bambam.

♡

Bambam carries their tray of food away as Yukhei pays for their lunch and grabs the cups to fill up with cola. It was easy for Yukhei to find Bambam, it helped that he was waving like mad. Bambam chose to sit with some of his Thai friends that Yukhei kinda knows: Lisa, Sorn and Minnie. Bambam tells Yukhei that there's one other person he hasn't met though.

They all greet him as Yukhei sits down. Yukhei has never sat down and hung out with them though, this might be a good time to get to know them, and the girls thought so as well because they begin asking Yukhei questions about himself.

“So Yukhei, where are you from?” Lisa asks.

“I’m from Hong Kong!”

“Oh? You must know Jackson then,” Sorn says.

“Yeah! I do, but not because he’s from Hong Kong, or anything. Bambam introduced me to him because he thought we’d be good friends.”

“Then,” Minnie starts. “How come you speak Thai, though?”

“Oh, my mum is Thai actually. We go back to Thailand every year to visit my relatives there,” Yukhei explains.

“How did your parents meet then? Hong Kong and Thailand aren’t exactly close.”

“It was basically love at first sight. My dad asked my mum for her number as soon as he saw her while he was visiting Thailand.”

“I know whom Yukhei takes after.” Bambam sniggers.

“What makes you say that?”

“You literally hung up the phone earlier today because you wanted to talk to that ‘beautiful’ dude on the tube!”

“I wanted to shoot my shot!”

“Ooh, what’s this?” someone says.

“A beautiful boy on the tube?” The girls learn closer to Yukhei. It seems that the girls’ interest has been piqued.

“It’s nothing, Yukhei fell in love earlier today. He kept gushing about him this morning when he was late for our presentation with Prof Kwon. He could’ve gotten us killed…”

“Don’t be dramatic, Bambam. Prof Kwon loves me, she wouldn’t hurt me, not sure if she wouldn’t murder you though.”

“Sure, that’s why she _totally_ considered postponing today’s presentation just for you, right?” Bambam’s laying on the sarcasm pretty thick.

“Hey, you never know if you don’t try.” Yukhei throws his hands up. “I thought it was a good effort and I’m pretty sure the whole class thought so as well.”

“Well, the next time you meet this mystery man, tell him thanks for not letting me get killed, will you?”

“Shut it, Bambam. We want Yukhei to tell us more about this stranger!” the girls twitter.

“Well, I was late this morning and I almost missed my tube. I was right in front of the doors when it closed. I was about to burst into tears, thinking about what Bambam would do to me, and there he was, the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.”

“Bambam is the mysterious guy who saved you life?!” Sorn says.

“Why the hell would I think Bambam is the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.” Yukhei can’t believe Sorn would say anything like that. Bambam looks offended.

"Sorn, this is the most beautiful person I've ever seen. You think I would consider Bambam the most beautiful man I've ever seen?"

“Even more beautiful than _the _Prof Kim Jongin?” Lisa looks pretty shocked.

“Just as beautiful, if not more.”

The girls gasp, “You’re kidding! He must be really handsome then.”

Yukhei nods and continues, “He presses the button on the tube doors, which by the way did you know has a function? The more you know. So, the doors open and right next to me was this angelic being. He gives me this dazzling smile that blinds me for a minute.”

The girls giggle, and Bambam rolls his eyes.

“And then he opens his mouth, and I swear a heavenly chorus starts singing from up above. He says ‘I just saved your life, didn’t I?’ I'm rendered speechless, for I am only a mere mortal. I wasn’t made to be in the presence of such a beautiful deity.”

“Oh wow. I wonder who he is,” Minnie says.

“Maybe he goes to our uni?” Sorn adds.

Yukhei scoffs. “If he’s from our uni, then why haven’t people been worshipping the ground he walks on?”

"People don’t worship the ground Prof Kim walks on.” Lisa points out.

Yukhei frowns. “Touché. Anyway, Bambam ruined the moment by calling me and nagging me." The girls boo Bambam and gives him thumbs down.

"He told me to shoot my shot so I was gonna, but the dude got off the train at the next stop. So now I’m never gonna meet him and I’ll die alone because I’ll never find someone as worthy of my love as the Beautiful Stranger.”

Yukhei sighs and says, “All thanks to Bambam.”

The girls continue booing Bambam, who glares at Yukhei. “Don’t be so dramatic, Yukhei. You’ll forget about him in like two days.”

“Well I wouldn’t forget about him if you weren’t nagging me on the phone dude.” Yukhei whines and hits his head on the table. The girls give Yukhei a sympathetic look, Lisa even gives him a pat on the back.

“You’ll be alright, Yukhei.” she reassures him.

“Anyway, speaking of my mystery man, when will I get to meet this other mysterious Thai dude?" Yukhei asks.

"Oh, he said he would join us today." Lisa replies, Sorn just shrugs.

“He’s been busy lately.” Bambam adds.

"What's his name again?" Yukhei asks.

"Oh, his name is—" Someone in the cafeteria lets out the loudest sneeze known to man, effectively distracting Yukhei for a few seconds. _Wait, what was the guy’s name_, he couldn’t focus after hearing the sneeze but he just nods to be polite. Maybe he’ll ask Bambam again later.

"Buuuut you can call him TNT!" Sorn adds, although Yukhei sees Bambam trying to stifle his laughter.

Oh well, at least Yukhei knows what to call the other Thai dude now.

They all speak in rapid fire Thai throughout the rest of the conversation and Yukhei can follow most of it, but he only chimes in when they ask for his opinion. Yukhei laughs when jokes are made, but otherwise he stays quiet, occasionally asking Bambam what a word means so he can widen his vocabulary.

♡

Yukhei says goodbye to the Thai kids after finishing his lunch. As he makes his way to the exit, he spots his friends. He changes his course and beelines to their table.

"Sicheng-ge! Kun-ge! Haven't seen you guys in a while! Where's Dejun and Kunhang?" Yukhei asks as he plops down at their table.

Kun gives Yukhei a friendly smile. "I think they're still in line." Yukhei turns his head and tries to spot Dejun an Kunhang in line, but he doesn't see them.

As he waits for his two friends, Yukhei eyes at Sicheng's fries. He waits for Sicheng to be distracted so he can steal one of his fries. Luckily for Sicheng, it was Yukhei that got distracted first by Dejun and Kunhang's appearance at the table. Kunhang drops his tray on the table to give Yukhei a hug and Dejun puts out his fist for Yukhei to bump.

"Yukhei! I haven't seen you since forever." Kunhang says.

Yukhei playfully punches him on the shoulder, "I told you to come by gym whenever, but you haven't shown up once!"

Kunhang laughs, "We should hang out some time. Dejun's performing for open mic night in a few months, right, DJ?"

Dejun nods, "Yeah, it'd be nice to see another familiar face in the crowd."

"Mine? I wouldn't miss it for the world, Dejun."

"Thanks Yukhei." Dejun pats Yukhei on the shoulder and gives him a smile.

"What about you, Sicheng-ge, Kun-ge?" Kunhang asks.

Sicheng thinks about it, and Yukhei takes this chance to steal one of the fries he's been eyeing for the past 5 minutes. He manages to sneak one before Kun notices and offers Yukhei some of his fries. Yukhei wastes no time stuffing his face with them, Kun just shakes his head in response. Yukhei thanks Kun with his mouth full and even manages an I love you to Kun. Kun looks disgusted to say the least.

Kun and Sicheng both say they'll be there and Dejun looks really thankful. Yukhei is excited for the open mic night, it's always good fun to listen to music, good and bad, and spend time with people that aren't Bambam.

♡

A few days later, Yukhei has already forgotten about the Beautiful Stranger. That is until he accidentally gets on the wrong tube and sees the Beautiful Stranger again, sitting down and reading a book with his headphones on.

Yukhei's glad that the tube isn't too crowded so he musters up all the courage he has and walks over to him, trying really hard to balance himself so he wouldn't fall down and embarrass himself.

The train stops and Yukhei manages to hold onto the overhead straps before he could plummet to the floor. The person next to the stranger get up and leaves, so Yukhei grabs his chance and takes the seat next to the stranger.

Yukhei clears his throat once. The stranger doesn't respond.

Twice. Nope, still hasn't noticed.

Thrice. The person sitting next to him offers Yukhei a lozenge, Yukhei declines but the stranger still hasn't noticed.

Yukhei sighs, and taps him on the shoulder. The stranger jumps a little, surprised by Yukhei's action and promptly takes off his headphones.

"Can I help you?" he asks, and off goes the heavenly chorus in Yukhei's ears.

He shakes his head to clear the voices. "You already have, and I didn't get to say thank you the other day," he says.

"Oh! I remember you. You were on your knees in front of the train last week. It's alright. You looked like you were gonna be in trouble if you missed the train."

"Oh yeah, my partner would've killed me. I had a presentation that morning, but I overslept, and I had all the materials for said presentation, so he was freaking out and—" Yukhei stops when realises that he's rambling, and that makes the stranger smile. _Oh, he has a really nice smile._

Yukhei tries to thank him properly, but he keeps stuttering. Damn that pretty face of his.

"Hey, you're welcome," is all that the stranger says.

As he's about to put his headphones back on, Yukhei spits out, "I'm Yukhei, by the way!"

"Hi, Yukhei. You can call me Ten." Ten says, extending his hand to Yukhei who grabs it and shakes it.

As they let go, Yukhei tries to turn his charm on and says, "So, Ten. Would you be interested in getting coffee with me?"

Ten chuckles. "I'm sorry?"

Yukhei begins to panic. "Uh, do you want to go on a date with me?"

Ten laughs again and, wow, Yukhei really wants to make him laugh some more. "That's a nice offer, Yukhei. But I think I would like to be friends first."

Yukhei feels a pain in his chest. Its strength is surprising, but he figures it won't be too bad getting to get to know Ten better this way.

"That doesn't sound too bad." Yukhei musters a smile.

Ten and Yukhei talk for a while, and they discover that they both attend the same university. Ten majors in fashion design, and Yukhei in sports science, which means their respective buildings are on opposite sides of the campus. No wonder Yukhei hasn’t run into Ten before.

"So Yukhei, you're a jock, huh?" Ten asks.

Yukhei laughs. "Yeah, I guess I am. Do you play any sports?"

"I dance!” Something twinkles in Ten’s eye, but it gets quickly snuffed out. “Well, I used to, before the senior year work load plus my collection sucked up all of my time. I haven't been able to dance properly in a while." Ten shrugs as if it’s nothing, but Yukhei feels a twinge of pain. Last semester’s hell month was still fresh in his mind, and he couldn’t imagine being so busy for so long that he’d have no time for his interests.

Ten continues. "I've been so busy that I've been eating lunch in the studio instead of the cafeteria." Ten rubs his temples as if in pain. "I don't even remember what my friends look like anymore." He pretends to wipe a stray tear from his eyes.

Yukhei laughs at Ten's dramatics. "How are we gonna be friends, then? You don't even have time for your own friends right now."

"Well, I think we're already friends now."

At those words, Yukhei feels a blush bloom on his cheeks.

They get to know each other a bit more, talking about more of their interests. Turns out that they had a few things in common like enjoying cat memes, anime and pretty much the same taste in music. Yukhei finds out that Ten likes this Korean idol that promotes a super popular Thai seaweed snack. Yukhei thinks that’s pretty cool.

“You know, I’m actually half Thai!” Yukhei says after Ten shows Yukhei a picture of Oh Sehun, the idol that Ten likes.

“Oh really? That’s cool,” Ten replies.

“I can speak a little Thai and read it, so I might be able to help you translate stuff if this Sehun guy ever says anything in Thai,” Yukhei offers.

“How many languages do you speak?” Ten looks intrigued.

“3 and a half?" Yukhei quips. "You can guess what the 0.5 is. My dad’s from Hong Kong, so I speak Cantonese as well as Mandarin, of course.” Yukhei doesn’t really like to brag, but he really wants to impress Ten.

“Hong Kong? How did they meet then?”

“My dad was on a trip in Thailand, and he walked past a salon. My mum worked as a hairdresser in said salon, and he just kinda went for it. He asked for her number.”

“That’s so cute. I guess I can see where you get your confidence from then.”

Yukhei laughs. “That’s not even the full story.”

“Please continue, then.”

“My mum wasn’t very rich, so she didn’t have a phone. So my dad went ‘okay then let’s go buy one for you!’.”

“It’s very sweet of your dad to have offered that. But if your mum couldn't afford it, then how did she manage to pay the phone bills? I would imagine that international phone calls are very expensive.”

Yukhei was stunned. That was the first time anyone has ever asked that and Yukhei doesn’t know what to say.

“I guess they figured it out somehow, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

Ten chuckles. "I guess you’re right. It’s been nice chatting to you, Yukhei." Ten gathers his belongings, and stands up. "But I have to go. This stop is mine.”

Yukhei tries not to whimper like a sad puppy. “Can I at least get your phone number? I’d love to hang out with you again.”

Ten looks all too happy to exchange numbers. Yukhei hands Ten his phone, which looks so much bigger in Ten’s rather small hands. Yukhei really wants to hold Ten’s hands.

As Yukhei puts in his details on Ten's phone, Ten does the same, and even takes a photo of himself for Yukhei to set as a contact image, “So you won’t miss my beautiful face too much.” He caps it off with a wink. Yukhei blushes a little and takes his phone back, just as the train brakes. Ten alights the train and waves goodbye to Yukhei.

It's weird, Yukhei knows, but he kinda misses Ten already.

♡

"Bambam, I haven't seen him in over a week." Yukhei pouts.

Bambam rolls his eyes. "I didn't know you were this clingy, one week without this guy and you're already dying."

"First of all '_this guy_' has a name and it's Ten. Secondly, I'm not dying yet, I just miss him. And lastly, it hasn't just been a week, it's been exactly 1 week, 2 days, 5 hours and,” Yukhei stops to check his watch, “Almost 12 minutes since I last saw him. So technically, it’s been more than a week."

After getting Ten’s phone number, Yukhei immediately texted Bambam about their conversation. But their friendship is progressing a bit too slow for Yukhei’s liking. Yukhei sends Ten the occasional cat video he finds, and Ten responds usually a few minutes after. Yukhei thinks Ten appreciates it.

"Ten? His name is Ten?"

"Yeah, I don't know his actual name, but that's what he told me to call him." Yukhei shrugs. "Why? Do you know him? I actually have a picture of him this time"

Bambam hums, but shakes his head. "Nah, never heard of him. Hold up, did you take the pic in secret?”

“What? No! He took it himself when he gave me his number!” Yukhei swipes on his phone for the precious selfie, and hands his phone to Bambam. Unlike in Ten’s hand, his phone doesn’t look too big in Bambam’s. It’s just making Yukhei really want to hold Ten’s hand.

Bambam makes an unimpressed face. “What's so great about this Ten guy anyway?"

"For starters, as his name suggests, he’s...” Yukhei aims a finger gun at Bambam. “A ten out of ten.”

“If this guy is as good looking as you say he is, I’m_ sure_ he’s never heard of that before.”

“That’s understandable. I doubt that I’m the first person to ever find him attractive.”

“So the big deal about Ten is just his face then?”

Yukhei flounders. “I… don’t really know him that well… But he did help us! So you can tell that he’s a good person. Good personality, good face, _and_ he likes Naruto. What more could anyone possibly ask for?”

“Uh, I don’t know? Good sense of humour, maybe?”

“He laughs at the memes I send him, so that means we kinda have the same sense of humour, right?”

“I’m not gonna comment any further on your compatibility with this Ten dude. Anyway, if you miss him so much, why don’t you just ask him to hang out or something?”

“I want to, obviously. But I don’t wanna interfere with his projects or anything. He’s super busy, apparently.” Yukhei frowns. “He’s too busy to even have a proper lunch, he said.” That reminds Yukhei. He should ask soon if Ten’s had lunch yet.

“There’s really no harm in trying, man. He might even say yes.”

Yukhei doesn’t have to think about it for long. “I guess I’ll give it a shot.”

He picks up his phone and asks Ten if he’s free.

♡

It turns out that Ten is always busy because he’s also working part time.

“Being a fashion design student is really expensive :/” Ten replies when Yukhei asks why he has a part time job when he’s already busy with his many, many projects. Must be tough for Ten. Yukhei can’t imagine what it’s like to be Ten. Yukhei wished he could do something for him. He hopes all the memes and the check-up texts he sends brighten Ten’s day.

Other than sending Ten those plus Naruto headcanons, Yukhei can’t really think of any other way to strengthen his friendship with Ten. He’s tried to recommend anime and movies for Ten to watch, but as expected, his new friend can only reply, “Thanks! I’ll add them to my ‘To-Watch’ list.” Yukhei whines about it a lot to Bambam, who has gotten real sick of listening to Yukhei crying about it.

“I’m a rabbit, Bambam! I’ll die if I’m lonely!”

“Uh, last time I checked you don’t have long ears.”

Yukhei just sends Bambam a glare. Bambam stick out his tongue.

Yukhei doesn’t need that kind of negative energy in his life, so he turns to his other friends. Kunhang and Dejun listen to him, giving Yukhei comforting pats on the back. Kun sometimes nags at Yukhei for being too focused on Ten and not important things like his grades. Yukhei thinks he’s doing just fine in his classes. It’s not like he’s thinking Ten all the time. He does need to sleep, as well as try to stay awake in his boring classes and later again in the evening when he tries to get some extra studying done, so he only complains_ sometimes_. Okay, maybe that’s all he’s been talking about with Kun lately, so Yukhei understands why it’d look like he’s obsessed with Ten.

Yukhei turns to Sicheng instead.

“Dude, why don’t you just ask him where he works or something? You could visit him during his work hours.”

“Sicheng-ge, there’s a thing called work ethics.”

“Okay, then go drop by his studio, bring him some lunch, ask about his collection.”

That sounds like a good idea, except, “I don’t know where his studio is.”

“I’ve got tons of friends in the Fashion Department, dude. What’s this guy’s name again? Trent?”

Yukhei wrinkles his nose. “It’s Ten, like the number.”

“I’m sure Minghao would know where he is, or at least he would know people who do know.”

Yukhei gives Sicheng a big hug and says, “I owe you my life, Sicheng-ge.”

♡

A few days later, Yukhei finds himself looking at a building he isn’t familiar with, but this is where Sicheng said Minghao said Ten would be. Yukhei decided to surprise Ten with a visit, but he knew he couldn’t come empty handed, so prior to seeking out the Fashion Department, he panicked about what to bring. _Are flowers going to be too much? Why would he even need flowers? Is coffee good enough? What if he doesn’t like coffee? Tea, then? What if he’s avoiding caffeine? _

Bambam quickly got sick of Yukhei listing out all his choices and how each could bite him in the ass, and said, “Dude, why don’t you just bring him fruits or something?”

“Fruits? What if, I dunno, he’s allergic to the fruit I choose, or if he doesn’t like fruit?”

“I don’t know, man.” Bambam shook his head, and returned to his notes. “Didn’t you say he said he hasn’t had time for a proper lunch? Maybe get him a meal?”

Another presentation slide passes by without Yukhei getting so much as a bullet point down. “What does that even mean, a proper lunch? That’s so vague, because I think a sandwich is already a good enough lunch, but some people would disagree. So what is an improper lunch?”

“Just.” Bambam waved his hands around. “Get him a slice of pizza. No one would say no to free pizza.”

“What if he’s lactose intolerant?”

“_Oh my god_, dude. Stop stressing out about it. Just get him pizza. Some people are lactose intolerant, but they still consume dairy products. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“What if he’s vegan?”

“It’s the thought that counts, Yukhei. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it either way.”

Yukhei didn’t want to go overboard, so he just bought a slice for Ten and himself, along with two cans of cola. A new thought hits him. Should he have bought some dessert? Oh god, what if he’s going _underboard_? Is that a thing? This was a bad idea. Yukhei can’t believe he let his friends talk him into this. Just as he turns around, he bumps into Ten.

“Yukhei?” Ten asks.

“Ten, hi!” Yukhei gives Ten a little wave, almost dropping the pizza slices.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I actually wanted to surprise you… You told me about how you haven’t been able to get a proper lunch and all, so I thought I’d drop by and bring you one.”

“That’s really nice of you, Yukhei. Are both for me or...?” Ten eyes at the pizza slices Yukhei is holding.

“O-oh, you can have both if you want.”

“Yeah, thanks!” Yukhei hands Ten both pizza slices and colas.

“You’re welcome.” Yukhei scratches his head, feeling a bit silly. But it was nice to see Ten again. Were his lashes always this long? Yukhei swears they wasn’t always this long, but how could Yukhei have missed such a beautiful detail about Ten? Has it really been that long since he last saw Ten that he’s forgetting his face? But how could he forget a face like that?

“I think I should share this with my friend, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.”

“The pleasure is mine, I guess. Tell your friend I said hi.” Yukhei starts to walk away when Ten taps on his shoulder

“Hey, Yukhei. My friend says hi! And he also gave me two slices of pizza, so do you wanna have lunch with me?”

Ten leads Yukhei down the hallway and into his workroom. Under the fluorescent lights shine a number of large tables overlaid with various fabrics and a lot of dress forms with clothing articles at different stages towards completion. Yukhei doesn’t have any friends from this faculty, so this is all a new experience for him. Ten introduces Yukhei to some of the other senior fashion design students along the way, and the tour of the workroom ends when they reach Ten's table. Yukhei picks up one of Ten's sketches.

"This looks really cool." Yukhei holds up the sketches and shows Ten.

"You think so?" Ten takes a look at the sketch again and sighs. "I hope I can find a model good enough to wear it."

"How do you choose your models?"

"Well, the faculty will hold a go-see so anyone who wants to try out the model life can just show up. You'll have to walk for us designers and we'll decide if we want you to model for us or not."

"Oh, that doesn't sound too difficult. How hard can walking be?"

"You tell that to Sir Arms-Swings-A-Lot and Miss My-Left-Arm-is-Dead." Ten cringes at a memory. "Walking is easy, but modelling is a different story, Yukhei."

After finishing his slice of pizza, Ten gets up to wash his hands. Yukhei takes this opportunity to search up the Fashion Design's SNS page, and swiftly finds a poster announcing the go-see. The first round is to be held in this very building, and during the period Yukhei usually spends working next to and chatting with his friends. His heart thumps extra hard as he saves the date to his calendar.

♡

For all that bravado in front of Ten, Yukhei actually does get nervous when he sees the rest of the people auditioning. The room is full of good looking people and of course, Yukhei doesn’t feel too out of place. Still it’s nerve-wracking to be in a position where he has to vie for Ten’s attention. This is the first time Yukhei has tried out for anything like this, so this might be an interesting experience. Yukhei did some research on how to walk like a model since that’s probably what he’s gonna be doing for the rest of fashion design students. He even asked Bambam for help, who in turn got Lisa and Sorn to help him with it. Yukhei practiced his walk in front of the mirror and compared to some videos he found on Youtube. He thinks he has a solid walk.

Yukhei’s not sure what to expect when it’s his turn to walk for the designers. What he did expect was Ten being surprised by his presence. Ten is so stunned that he pulls Yukhei away to the back of the room too ask him what he’s doing there.

“You said you needed models, so I thought, _why not_?”

“And what makes you think you would make a great model?”

“Height? Check. Fit body? Check. Good-looking face? Check.”

“Oh? Who told you you were good-looking?”

“Oh, what, you don’t think so?”

Ten circles around Yukhei, taking a good look at him. “You’re not too bad-looking. I’ve seen better though.”

Yukhei pouts, and opens his mouth to retort, except the other designers insist on getting started with the go-see. The designers make him walk for one end of the room to the other and back again. Yukhei shakes off his nerves and walks as confidently as he could. And it works, because it seems like a lot of them were interested in casting Yukhei in their show. The next thing Yukhei knows, the designers are trying to get him to try their out their clothes and walk for them so they can see how the garments move. It progressively gets kind of intense for Yukhei because there’s a lot of yelling and so many people trying to hand Yukhei their clothing... That is, until Ten takes control of the situation and tells everyone to back off because they were scaring Yukhei. For Ten’s size, he can be pretty scary when he’s angry.

“Everyone needs to calm down. You guys know the models can walk for several designers, so there’s no need to fight.” Ten says. Yukhei’s kind of glad that Ten’s here. He can’t imagine what it would be like if he went to a go-see for the first time and this happened without Ten to intervene.

“Yukhei’s a good model, but you guys are gonna scare him off if you keep acting this way. So if you all can be civilised people and tell Yukhei one by one if you want him in your show...” Ten continues. The other designers nod in agreement.

Yukhei feels flattered by the attention. So far, 6 out of the 15 designers have told Yukhei they want him to be in their show and now it Ten’s turn to announce his decision. Yukhei feels the palms of his hands get sweaty.

“Yukhei, I’d be thrilled to have you walk for me.”

Yukhei feels relief wash over him. Thank goodness his plan worked.

♡

Over the next few weeks, Yukhei gets to see Ten much more often, and that lets him do away with his lonely rabbit persona. He spends all his free time in Ten’s workroom, usually getting fitted for ensembles, and sometimes just chatting with Ten about this and that. Other times, Yukhei just hangs out in the workroom, switching between his own workstation and the sight of Ten at his own. It was really cool getting to see all the prep that goes into a fashion show. And an added benefit of course is getting to know Ten a little better, like finding out what silhouettes he prefers and what fabrics he likes to work with.

Ten’s collection is heavily inspired by the street style seen during the various fashion weeks in the world. Ten is much more interested in expressing individualism, rather than following mainstream fashion. So his fashion mood board includes a lot outfits worn by models after their shows during fashion week, which are expectedly much more laidback and no longer haute couture. Yukhei thinks what Ten has so far is amazing.

But one day, Yukhei enters the workroom and he sees Ten looking a bit dejected. “What’s wrong, Ten?”

“I sewed something wrong.” Ten frowns. “One of my models came in for a fitting earlier, but the thing I had them try on didn’t move or look the way I wanted it to. I’d fix it but I’m pretty sure my brain juices are 100% caffeine right now so don’t know how to fix it and now my goal is to be one with the floor so I don’t have to think about it.”

“Hey no, don’t do that. I’m sure there’s a way to fix it. Come on, show me. Maybe I can help.”

With a tug from Yukhei, Ten gets up from his chair to show one of the dummies and gestures to the pants on the form. They looked pretty fine to Yukhei. The draping looked interesting and the fit looked good, too, so Yukhei tells Ten that.

“Thank you, but it only looks fine on the form, not on the model.” Ten just sighs in exasperation. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Yukhei looks at the form again and thinks, “Did you measure the model again?”

“I did, but I’m still not sure what I should do.”

“Can I put them on?”

Ten laughs, “I don’t think you can fit them though.”

“Can you make a new one, the same way you draped that one?”

“Yeah, sure. I think I can use muslin.” And so he does.

Yukhei gets the privilege of seeing Ten work. Yukhei also gets the privilege of admiring Ten’s face from a different angle. He looks even more beautiful when focused, eyebrows all furrowed and lips caught between his teeth. Yukhei isn’t too sure of what Ten was doing, but he looks good doing it. Almost an hour later, the muslin pants are sewn and Yukhei has them on to test. Yukhei walks around the workroom, trying to figure out what’s wrong with Ten’s pattern.

"I think you should think about how people move more." Yukhei starts walking again, exaggerating his movements a little. "See how awkward this looks when I lift my legs a certain way? Maybe you should cut it differently."

“I think I see what you mean. Take those pants off and let me try again.”

Yukhei lets out a scandalized gasp. “Ten, I’m not gonna undress for you right now. Not in front of everyone.”

“Some people wouldn’t mind at all, I'm sure,” Ten says under his breath.

“What did you say?”

“Oh, just wondering how you know a lot about fashion and structuring clothes.”

“Well, I do study anatomy, physiology, biomechanics... all that good stuff, so I have an idea of how the body moves, and junk. And I think fashion’s very interesting.” Yukhei's gotten into fashion blogs lately, wanting to know more about the different styles that Ten and his classmates plan to dress Yukhei in, but Ten doesn’t have to know that.

Ten’s eyes are brimming with interest and a tinge of mischief. “Sports science sounds cool, but I think if you applied to switch to fashion design, you’d fit right in.” 

“And bury myself in work like you? No, thanks.”

“Shame. I thought you wanted to see more of me.” Ten pouts, and Yukhei feels like he’s melting.

“Why do you think I’m almost always here? I don’t think I need to apply for a transfer.”

“Oh, maybe you liked talking to Jung Jaehyun.” Ten looks away to chalk guidelines on the pant legs.

“He’s pretty great too.” Yukhei eyes Ten’s piercings, delighting at the little silver cat sitting on Ten’s earlobe.

“You know, I think he has a crush on you. Like a massive one.”

“Oh, does he now?” Yukhei twists in his to peek at the guy in question.

Jaehyun waves, and Yukhei returns the gesture.

Ten taps Yukhei’s forehead with the chalk. “Now, don’t you play dumb, Yukhei. Why do you think he offers you a snack, oh I don’t know, every 10 minutes?”

“I bring you lunch every day, does that not mean anything to you?”

The corners of Ten's mouth twitch, but he keeps his voice nonchalant. “I’ve never seen Jaehyun talk to anyone here when it’s time for class work but when you’re around he doesn’t even look at his work table.”

“Oh yeah? I haven’t noticed. Do you think I should ask him out?”

“Well if your type is someone obvious, then go for it.”

“Aw, is someone jealous?”

“I’m not your boyfriend. Why would I be jealous?” Ten doesn’t look up from trimming the muslin pants. He looks menacing with the huge shears in his hand, and the tone he's using doesn’t help either.

“I just want to thank him for all the snacks.”

“And the only way to thank someone for all the snacks is to take them out on a date?”

“I dunno. Don’t you think he looks kinda like he'd make a good boyfriend?” Yukhei puts on a look of serious contemplation.

“Well, do whatever you want. Just remember you need to come back from your _lover boy_, because we need to work on these pants.”

“What happens if I forget?”

Ten waves the shears around. “You can choose if you want to walk down the runway sans pants or not walk down the runway at all. I’m sure I can find other guys to walk for me.”

Yukhei gasps dramatically and places a hand on his chest. “Do you think Jaehyun would replace me like you would?”

“Jaehyun knows pretty much everyone on campus, so I’m sure he has, like, 20 hot guys just waiting to be given a chance to walk for him.”

“Hotter than me?”

“Unlikely.” Ten mutters.

“Oh, so you do think I’m hot?” Yukhei tries to catch Ten's eye, but the other refuses to look away from his garment.

“Full of hot air, that’s what you are.” Ten doesn't even miss a beat.

“I make you so happy that you feel like you’re floating?”

“How am I supposed to float when you’re the one full of air?”

“Oh, that’s easy.” Yukhei takes the pants, and the big shears, away, to holds Ten’s hands in his. Yukhei can see the blush on Ten’s cheeks getting deeper.

Ten pulls his hands away. “Shouldn’t you be using your hands to write that paper of yours mister?”

Yukhei lets out a small whine. “I’m working on it, I’m just taking a break.”

“Good boy.” Ten says as he pats Yukhei’s cheeks.

♡

With each passing day, Ten works on his ensembles. More often than not, he ends up asking Yukhei what his opinions are on the pieces he has, if Yukhei has any suggestions on how to make them move better. Ten thinks it’s one thing to have a nice looking garment, but it’s a completely different thing to have it move the way he wants it to. Yukhei is glad his input is helpful to Ten.

Yukhei also gets to meet the other models walking for the senior show. He knows a few of them like Mingyu, Eunwoo, Tzuyu and Yeeun. Mingyu was one of the other guys who was chosen to walk for several other designers, along with Rowoon. They both seem experienced at this modeling thing so Yukhei had to ask for some advice on his walk. The guys are pretty friendly, and Mingyu even shares a story of how he accidentally put on the wrong ensemble during one show. The other designers show Yukhei the ensembles he would be wearing and he tried a few of them on. As the show draws near, Yukhei attends several more fittings and a few rehearsals. At this point, Yukhei doesn’t get to see Ten as much as he usually did when things weren’t so hectic.

When the day of the actual fashion show arrives, Yukhei doesn’t feel as nervous as he was during the go-see. It’s actually kind of exciting to know that he’s helping these designers bring their visions to life, even if Yukhei doesn’t quite understand it himself. Ten is the last designer to showcase their collection and Yukhei was given the honour of closing Ten’s part of the show. Shortly before call-time he meets up with his friends at the venue, needing a bit of emotional support and some extra help with a favour.

“Are you excited, Yukhei?” Dejun beams.

“Yeah! It actually feels pretty glamorous, like I’m finally the star I was always meant to be.” Yukhei strikes a pose.

Amidst the hoots of his friends, someone from the production crew announces that all models have to head backstage in 5 minutes. “I have to get into hair and makeup soon. How cool does that sound?”

“Just don’t trip on the runway, man,” Kunhang reminds Yukhei. "That would be so embarrassing if that were to happen, and I already told a couple of people that my friend Wong Yukhei is now a runway model.

“Nah, the chances of that happening are pretty slim. I’m not gonna be walking in high heels or anything.” Not that one of the more avant-garde student designers didn’t consider putting him in stilettos.

“You’ll do just fine. Good luck, dude!” Sicheng slaps Yukhei on the back.

“Thanks for coming to support me and Ten, it really means a lot to me.”

“Sure dude, we’re your friends. Of course, we’d come to support you.” Kun reminds him.

“We’ll see you after the show, Yukhei!” The boys start to leave to go to their seats. Yukhei taps Kun’s shoulder before he gets too far away.

“Kun-ge, can you help me?”

“Depends on what you want me to do.”

“Can you hold these for me?” Yukhei hands Kun two bouquets of flowers and another bouquet of balloons.

“I’m not gonna hold all of these for you. I only have two hands, and I need them to take pics and maybe whack Dejun and Kunhang when they misbehave. Can’t you ask someone else?”

“Kun-ge please, you won’t even have to hold them for too long. You have to give one of these bouquets to Ten when he comes out at the end of the show. It’s the least you can do since you didn’t even bring anything for me.”

“You want me to do _what_?”

“Kun-ge, please.” Yukhei tries to give Kun the puppy dog eyes. Kun only rolls his eyes before taking all of Yukhei’s gifts.

“You owe me big time. You’re making me push my way through to the front seats just to give your boyfriend a bouquet of flowers, when you’re already giving him one backstage.”

“He’s not my boyfriend. And I just think it’ll be nice for him to be given a bouquet at the end of his show, since I can’t do it myself. It happens all the time during fashion shows, so don’t worry about it.”

“Whatever, Yukhei.”

“Thank you, Kun-ge.” Yukhei tries to give Kun a hug without crushing the gifts in his arms, “I owe you my life. I gotta go now. It’s time for me to get into hair and makeup.”

Yukhei gives Kun a wave goodbye before making his way backstage where he was immediately ushered to the hair and makeup area.

♡

Yukhei makes it through most of his ensembles without much drama. But of course it’s pretty crazy when it’s time for him to get into a different ensemble for another designer. He has to change clothes and fix his makeup so it fits with the designer’s concept. So whenever he’s backstage, he’s just crowded by people, with one person is trying to fix his hair, another trying to clip on his earrings, and another trying to get him out of the shirt he’s wearing and into another one. In the blink of an eye, Yukhei is dressed in another ensemble.

It’s a pretty wild experience for him. And throughout this whole time, Yukhei only gets to see Ten when it’s time for Ten to showcase his collection. Yukhei doesn’t even get a chance to talk to him since there were so many people around him but he did see Ten give him a thumbs up before he went on the runway.

Yukhei feels much more nervous walking down the runway for Ten compared to the other designers. Yukhei hears a familiar voice holler out “HUANG XUXI, HEN SHUAI!” and a “JIAYOU!” the moment he steps out onto the runway. Yukhei can see that Kun has successfully made his way to the front seats, he even managed to bring the rest along with him. They all looked very excited to see Yukhei on the runway and Yukhei really had to try and hold back the smile on his face from seeing his friends be so supportive of him. When Yukhei was right in front of them, Kunhang decides to wolf-whistle for him. Yukhei almost laughed at that but he manages to stifle it.

At the end of the runway, Yukhei can see Sicheng with two phones in his hands, presumably one to take pictures and the other to record a video. Yukhei struck a pose at the end of the runway and he hears a round of applause from his friends and when he turns around, he sees them all giving him a thumbs up. They’re making it really hard for Yukhei not to burst into laughter.

Yukhei finally makes it backstage and lines up again for the final walk, this time standing as the penultimate person, just in front of Ten. Because the final walk is pretty relaxed, Yukhei isn’t too worried about having to resist smiling at his friends’ antics. The boys go even harder, though as the crowd gives Ten a round of applause, they’re being relatively less embarrassing this time, except for Kunhang’s wolf-whistling. And when Ten passes Kun, Kun hands him the bouquet and Yukhei can hear Ten asking Kun who he was and why was he giving him a bouquet of flowers when they don’t know each other. Yukhei hears Kun yell over the music and the cheers, “Just take them! They’re from Yukhei!” and that makes Yukhei smile. Ten catches up with Yukhei and thanks him for the bouquet.

When they’re finally backstage, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. It was less busy after the show and Yukhei feels relaxed now that no one is trying to undress him. Yukhei didn’t bother changing back to his regular clothes and walks back out to find Kun so he can give Ten the flowers and balloons. The boys tell him he did a good job and that they’re sorry they didn’t get him a bouquet of flowers.

“It’s fine guys, the show is more about the designer, not the models. They deserve all the praise.” Yukhei then tells them to wait outside for a bit while he gives Ten his gifts. Yukhei spots Ten among his classmates, all congratulating each other for their good job. Yukhei thinks he hears someone say something to Ten in Thai, but maybe he’s just imagining it. Yukhei hides behind the balloons and taps Ten on the shoulder from behind.

“Surprise!” Yukhei yells out when Ten turns around. “These are for you. Congratulations on the successful show!” Ten tells his classmates that he’ll catch up with them in a bit, and guides Yukhei to an area where they can have a private conversation.

“Thank you, Yukhei. You really didn’t have to. You even got me two flower bouquets, aw.” Ten looks really thankful. “But another one of these and people will think that we’re dating.” .

“Oh? Then should I go buy you another one?” This makes Ten cackle. “No harm in making people think we’re an item. It’s not like we’re dating other people.”

“Hey, why are you still in those clothes? Are you trying to steal them from me?”

“These are pretty nice. Maybe I do want to steal them from you.”

“You don’t have to steal them from me. You can buy them instead.”

“How much would I owe you if take them off your hands though?”

Ten’s answer floors Yukhei. “You owe me one date.”

Yukhei can’t even feel his feet on the ground, like when he first walked for Ten and everyone else at the go-see. “Just one? I feel like these clothes are worth at least five dates or something.”

“Hmm, now that I think about it, I don’t think five would be enough. I mean, I did have to put in extra hours of labour because someone kept distracting me with all those cat memes.”

“Okay, okay. How about we keep going on dates until you think I’ve paid off my debt?”

“Deal.”

♡

Open mic night arrives sooner than Yukhei thought it would. Despite feeling like he's been seeing Bambam much more than he would want to, thanks to Professor Kwon, Yukhei invited Bambam to go see Dejun as well.

"Maybe you'll meet someone cuter than that stranger on the train from the other day," was what Bambam replies to Yukhei's invite.

Yukhei laughs. ”If you see Prof Kim, let me know.”

The open mic night is usually held at the campus’ coffee shop. Because it doesn’t happen more than twice a semester, a lot of people show up. When Dejun performs, though, as Yukhei learned, the crowd doubles. Not that Yukhei is surprised. Dejun has a soft and soothing voice that reminds Yukhei of chamomile tea, calming and melting away all stress. Needless to say, the coffee shop is packed tonight.

Yukhei arrives a bit later than usual, not feeling like sitting around to watch the other acts, when he could be catching up on anime or reading. Someone is already performing when Yukhei gets through the door, someone whose voice Yukhei can’t say he recognizes. He tries to get a better look at the singer, but a familiar figure with a guitar catches his eye. A few friends greet Yukhei as he makes his way through the crowd.

"Maaaark!” Yukhei yells, giving him a big hug.

“My number 1 friend!" Mark Lee yells back. "What's up, man? Are you gonna perform tonight?"

"Nah, I'm too talented for this type of venue," Yukhei says, a bit too smugly for Mark's liking.

"So that means you think I'm not that talented, huh?"

Yukhei guffaws, making Mark laugh with him too. "Noooo, that's not what I meant."

Mark playfully hits Yukhei. "Sure, bud."

Yukhei likes Mark. They dated for a while. They decided that it wasn't going to work out, but they remained good friends.

"I'm actually here to support my friend, Dejun. He's performing tonight, don't know when though." Yukhei explains.

"You're friends with Dejun?"

"Yeah, we're pretty close. I met him after I started hanging out with the guys from the Chinese Students' Union. Why?"

"I've listened to some of his stuff on SoundCloud and I like his style. You should introduce me later."

"Yeah, sure! When are you performing, though?"

"Right after this guy." Mark gestures at the person stepping off the stage.

"Oh! Good luck, man. Break a leg, but, like, don't actually break your legs."

"Thanks, Yukhei."

Yukhei scans the crowd once again and finally spots Kun-ge and the rest. So Yukhei gives Mark one last hug before he goes on stage.

"I'd like to dedicate this song to someone special in the crowd." Mark winks at Yukhei. "Tonight I'll be singing Photograph by Ed Sheeran. Hope you guys like it."

Yukhei cheers Mark on as he through the crowd to get to his friends, but he bumps into Bambam first.

“Yo, Double B!” Yukhei greets Bambam, giving him a bro-hug.

“Yukhei! You just missed TNT. “

“You didn’t tell me he was gonna be here, otherwise I would’ve shown up early.”

“Sorry man. He said something important just came up, so he left early."

"That's too bad."

"So," Bambam raises his eyebrows, "Mark Lee's dedicating this song to you, huh?"

"Apparently. I didn't know he would be performing tonight."

"This song kinda makes me think that he's not really over you."

"The break-up was mutual though.Why would he still be hung up on me? That doesn't make sense."

"Beats me, I don't know this Mark dude. Anyway, when is your friend performing?"

Yukhei checks his phone. “I’m not really sure, he said he’s gonna be on some time around 10. It’s almost 10 now, so maybe after Mark I guess.”

Mark’s performance nears its end, arriving at the bridge of the song already. Yukhei thinks about what Bambam said. People can dedicate a song to someone but not mean it literally. Plus, they both decided to end the relationship, why would Mark hint at wanting to get back together right now after they broke up months ago?

Mark plays the last chord of the song, and thanks the crowd. The chord rings in Yukhei's ears long after Mark leaves the stage. It drowns out the crowd's applause and amplifies the questions Yukhei has about Mark's song dedication. Yukhei has moved on, surely he has, too. As far as Yukhei knows, Mark is seeing someone else now.

Yukhei snaps out of it when Dejun appears on stage and introduces himself and his song. He's singing Love Never Felt So Good tonight, instead of a self-composed song. The crowd loves it, and everyone sings along with Dejun. Yukhei dances his way through the crowd to get to where his friends were. The boys greet him by dancing along with him.

Just then his phone vibrates in his pocket. It’s a text from Ten saying, “Are we still on for tomorrow?”

Yukhei smiles, quickly tapping out an affirmative reply with a whole lot of emojis.

♡

Yukhei’s not too sure about what to wear on a first date, so he keeps it casual. Ten invited him to go see the movie that the Thai Students’ Association is screening for International Students’ Week. Yukhei isn’t too familiar with Thai’s film scene, he only knows that they're famous for horror movies. He tried asking Bambam if he knew what movie they were gonna show but he said he didn’t know. Yukhei shows up early and walks around, looking at all the booths set up by different clubs. Yukhei stops by the Chinese students’ booth and finds Kun there, handing out dumplings to anyone who stopped by.

“Kun-ge, did you make these?” Yukhei asks before taking a few dumplings for himself.

“Yeah, I did. You wanna learn how to make these? I’m instructing this dumpling making class tomorrow, it would be nice if you could join.”

“If I go, will you make me more dumplings? They’re so good.”

“You can learn to make them yourself. You can even bring that boyfriend of yours. I can’t imagine a better date than learning how to cook something together.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Great, so I’ll see you tomorrow then. Help yourself to some more dumplings!” Kun hands him a plate full of them. “Remember to share those with your date.”

“Well, he’s gotta show up soon if he wants one of these.”

“If who wants one of what, Yukhei?”

Yukhei turns around with his mouth full of dumplings and sees Ten. Ten was not prepared for the sight that was before him and made a face. His reaction makes Kun laugh though.

“Dumplings that Kun-ge made.” Yukhei says with his mouth full, “Do you want any?”

“If I eat one, will you stop talking with your mouth full?”

“You’ll get used to it.” Kun quips.

“Maybe.” Yukhei says as he holds up the plate for Ten.

Ten takes one and pops it into his mouth.

“They’re really good, right?” Yukhei asks with his mouth still full.

“Ew, thanks for ruining my appetite, Yukhei.”

“Excuse me?” Kun says.

Ten takes a napkin from the booth and spits out the dumpling. Kun gasps in the background.

“Uh, is something wrong?”

“Other than the fact that you just ruined my appetite and interest in sampling the other food the other clubs are serving? Nothing.”

“Now, you listen here dude. I don’t know who you think you are but when someone gives you free food the least you should do is—”

“Do you think I could sneak in this plate of dumplings into the movie screening?” Yukhei wonders with his mouth still full of food.

Ten checks his watch, “Oh my God, is that the time already? Yukhei, we’re gonna be late for the movie.”

Ten takes the plate away from Yukhei and puts it on the table before pulling Yukhei away.

“Bye, Kun-ge. We’ll see you tomorrow!” Yukhei waves Kun goodbye. Yukhei hears Kun yell something out but they were too far away to hear him clearly.

♡

It turns out that they weren’t late. Ten thought the movie started earlier. Yukhei feels kinda bad about just leaving Kun without a proper goodbye but he’s not complaining. He gets to spend more time alone with Ten. They have a little time to kill so they decide to goof off by playing games the Japanese Students’ Association had set up by their booth. They didn’t win any prizes, but Yukhei thinks he’s a winner either way because he made Ten smile and laugh so much. They were too caught up with the fun that they forgot that they had a movie to watch.

They manage to sneak into the lecture hall just as the movie starts. They go for seats in the back, not wanting to bother everyone else by trying to find good seats. The Thai students chose to play a horror movie which Yukhei is sure he could handle. Yukhei really wants to focus on the movie, but it seems like Ten doesn’t really handle horror well, and he’s just clings onto Yukhei. The grip that Ten has on Yukhei’s forearm gets tighter and tighter with each jumpscare.

Yukhei pokes Ten’s cheeks, “Aw, is someone scared?”

Ten blushes and lets go of Yukhei’s arm, “N-no, I’m not scared. What are you talking about? I love horror movies. I watch nothing but horror movies.”

Yukhei chuckles, “Nice try, Ten.”

“Really, I’m not scared.”

“Okay, Ten.” Yukhei teases Ten, “I guess that means you won’t need me to hold your hand then.”

Ten pouts in response, “No, I don’t need you to hold my hand.”

Immediately after Ten says that, a specter jumps out on the screen, making Ten flinch and grab Yukhei’s hand for protection.

Yukhei bites back the small smile forming on his lips. “It’s okay to be scared, Ten. I’m here to keep you away from scary ghosties.” Yukhei gives Ten a pat.

Ten mumbles a thank you and Yukhei feels warm inside.

Sometimes Ten tries to disguise his fear by laughing at the corny effects they used in the movie. But more often than not, the laughter turns into yelps and that endears him even more to Yukhei. With Ten clinging onto him, Yukhei can count the lashes on his eyes. Being this close to Ten makes it easier for Yukhei to appreciate the details of his face, like right now Yukhei can see all the moles dotting his complexion. There’s one on his forehead and another under right eyebrow, oh and another one near his sideburns. Yukhei kinda wants to give each mole a kiss, but that would be a bit weird since this is only their first date, so Yukhei contents himself with admiring them. His eyes move from Ten’s moles down to Ten’s lips. They’re so pink and perfect. Yukhei can’t imagine anyone having nicer lips than Ten. Okay now, Yukhei wants to kiss him. Ten turns to look at Yukhei.

“Don’t you think the subtitles are a little inaccurate?” Ten comments.

Yukhei only hums in response. The comment sinks in after a little while.

“Wait, what did you say?” Yukhei asks, a little bit too loudly and some people in the theatre turn around to glare at him. One person even shushes him. Yukhei sees Ten stifle his laughter. Does this mean Ten has been learning Thai for him? Is that why Ten suggested they watch this movie, even if he’s too scared to enjoy it? Yukhei can’t believe how sweet Ten is, learning a foreign language just for Yukhei. This means Ten likes Yukhei too. Yukhei is too overwhelmed by this realisation and just ends up staring at Ten until the movie ends.

As soon as the credits start rolling, Ten tugs on Yukhei’s sleeve, “Let’s go.”

“But they’re handing out snacks…” Yukhei sees Bambam and the rest of the Thai kids he knows, waving at him. “They’re even handing out the seaweed thing that your Sehun endorses. Plus, don’t you wanna meet my friends? They were in charge of this movie screening.”

“You go say hi, I need to pee. I’ll wait for you outside.” Ten walks out of the room and Yukhei walks down to where Bambam and the others are.

“Did you and your date register yet?” Bambam asks, holding up a clipboard.

“Oh, no. We came in kinda late, so we didn’t really have time to,” Yukhei says as he reaches out for the clipboard.

“So where did your little boyfriend go, Yukhei?” Sorn teases when she hands Yukhei a pen to write out his details in the form.

“He needed to pee.”

“Did you hold hands during the movie? Did he get scared and cling onto you?” Lisa joins in on the teasing.

Yukhei can’t help blushing. “I should get going. He’s waiting for me outside.”

“Have fun, Yukhei!” they all yell out as Yukhei basically runs out of the lecture hall.

♡ 

Sure enough, Yukhei finds Ten outside the lecture theatre, waiting for him.

“Yukhei, do you wanna go get some ice-cream? There’s an ice cream place that makes cha yen ice cream and it’s really good.”

Yukhei checks his phone. It’s only 8.26 pm, still early. “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

Ten leads the way and for a few minutes they walk in silence. Yukhei’s trying to think of a way to ask Ten about how he knows Thai, but he keeps getting distracted by how the moonlight caresses Ten’s features. He’s known from the beginning that Ten is unrivaled in his ethereality and it made his heart race, but now the sight of that same face brings a strange sense of calm to Yukhei.

“So, how fun was that movie?”

“If being scared to death for like two hours is your idea of fun, then very! Absolutely.”

Yukhei chuckles. “You got to hold hands and snuggle with me. That was fun, right?”

“I guess,” Ten mumbles.

“You guess?” Yukhei feigns offense. “Were my hands sweaty, or something?”

“I didn’t need you to hold my hand. I was completely fine. You know what I think, though?”

“What?”

“I think you were the one who was scared.” Ten stops in front of Yukhei and points a finger at him. “You were the one who suggested that we hold hands, and now you’re trying to say that I was the scaredy cat.”

“Whatever you say, Ten~”

“At least I focused enough on the movie that I noticed how off the subs were.”

“How was I supposed to focus on the movie when someone had a death grip on my biceps?”

“Well you didn’t have to sit beside me—”

“What was it like holding—” Yukhei brings up his arms and flexes his muscles for Ten, “—these guns? Bet they felt strong and made you feel safe.”

Ten scoffs and tries to push Yukhei away, “Yeah, they made me feel soooo safe, especially when I could feel how tense they were because you know, you were terrified.”

“I wasn’t tense. What are you talking about?”

“Oh? So you’re telling me you were just casually flexing your biceps in the middle of a movie for absolutely no reason at all?”

“You’d be tense too if someone was holding your arms like this.” Yukhei takes Ten's bicep, _oh, they’re nicely sculpted_, and gives it a squeeze.

Ten wriggles out of Yukhei's hold. “Trying to cop a feel? Ay~” Ten wags his finger at Yukhei.

Yukhei splutters. “As if there’s anything to feel.”

Ten smacks Yukhei’s arms. “Not everyone has the time to lift like you. Some people have clothes to sew, you know?”

“Anyway, speaking of the movie, how could you tell that the sub— Wait a minute, is that...?” Yukhei squints at the figure a few meters ahead. “Professor Kim!”

And indeed it is Kim Jongin, instructor of one Yukhei’s classes, who also happens to be one of the most good-looking ones on campus. Prof Kim turns around when Yukhei calls out and immediately flower petals start falling out of nowhere. Yukhei always finds this to be the case whenever he sees Prof Kim, but he’s never too sure if he’s just imagining it or if there’s someone always on standby with flower petals around Jongin.

“Oh, hi, Yukhei.” Prof Kim swats away the flower petals and looks up to see an open window. “I wish these people wouldn’t leave windows open when things could float away and make a mess like this.”

“Hi, prof! It’s a nice night for a walk, right?”

“It is, and it looks like it’s an even better night to be on a date. Who’s your friend here, Yukhei?” Ten blushes at Prof Kim’s observation and Yukhei just laughs.

“This is Ten, he’s a fashion design student. I walked for his senior year show the other day.”

Ten and Jongin shake hands and exchange formalities. Yukhei feels like he’s on cloud nine, witnessing his two favourite people interact. He wonders if Ten knows who Prof Kim is. After all, Prof Kim Jongin’s popularity among students is so high that even people who didn’t take his class know him.

“Oh, Yukhei. I read the paper you submitted the other day and it’s excellent. You made some important points that not many of your classmates did. Keep up the good work!” Prof Kim gives Yukhei a smile.

“O-oh, thank you, Prof. I’m glad it was good.” Yukhei feels goofy as he tries to smile back.

“Well, I’ll leave you and your friend to it. Have a good night, Yukhei, Ten.” Prof Kim gives them a little wave and walks away, brushing off a few stray flower petals on his shoulder.

Yukhei and Ten walk a little further down the street. When Yukhei thinks Prof Kim is out of earshot, Yukhei lets out a little squeal of excitement that startles Ten.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Yukhei chants again and again.

“Am I missing something here?”

“Oh no, no. It’s just that Prof Kim, _the_ Prof Kim Jongin, personally told me that my paper was excellent… I actually can’t believe it.”

“Why not? I’m sure you worked really hard on that paper.”

“I did! But, no other prof has ever complimented my paper personally and to be given such a high praise from Prof Kim too… He’s like the best and hottest professor on campus… I think that’s the most I’ve ever said to him.”

“I’m really happy for you, Yukhei.” Ten gives Yukhei a hug. ”Must be one hell of a paper that you wrote to warrant such a high praise from your favourite professor.”

“I guess so. I did have someone to inspire me to keep doing my best while I was writing the paper, so really it’s thanks to him that Prof Kim Jongin liked the paper so much.”

“And who might that be?”

“Why don’t you take a guess?”

Ten pretends to think for a moment. “Oh, oh! Is it Jaehyun? I’m sure all the snacks he gave you were fueling your inspiration.”

Ten’s answer makes Yukhei burst out in laughter. “What makes you think it’s Jaehyun?”

“Well, he always brings you snacks, and I know you like snacking while you’re working on something.”

“I should’ve turned down your offer and asked Jaehyun out to a movie, then.”

Ten checks the time on his watch and says, “It’s still early, maybe you can give him a call and go catch a midnight movie or something.”

“And leave you? I would never.”

“Never? That’s not what you said when I told you he had a crush on you.”

“Mmm, that’s true but who’s my date right now though?”

“Yeah but who asked whom out though?”

“R-right… Well what’s important now is that we’re on a date now.”

“Here it is! Let’s go get that cha yen ice cream.” They arrive at a bright little ice cream shop. There aren’t a lot of people in the store so the bell rings loud and clear when they enter, prompting the staff to welcome them.

Ten seems to know one of the employees that work there, and they seem pretty friendly too. A little too friendly, Yukhei thinks. He’s pretty sure the guy is flirting with Ten. Yukhei squints at his nametag. Johnny. Well, he can’t be flirting with Yukhei’s date, Yukhei is the only one who should be doing that. Feeling threatened, Yukhei puts his arm around Ten’s shoulder to try and tell Johnny to back off. Ten just giggles in response, while Johnny just gives them a polite smile when he hands them their ice cream cups.

After paying for their ice cream, which Ten insisted paying for to celebrate Yukhei’s academic victory, they spot a table by the window and sit down. Ten digs into his ice cream after a few photos of it while Yukhei glowers at Johnny.

“Do you know that Johnny guy? He seemed pretty friendly with you.”

“Yeah, we’re close. He was in fashion design too. Graduated last year. Why? Is someone else jealous for once?”

“No, why would I be jealous? He’s not the one on a date with you.” Yukhei says before shoving a big spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. The burst of sweetness and the brain freeze calms him down. “Anyway, this ice cream really does taste like Thai iced tea.”

“It does—”

“Speaking of Thai, when you said that thing about the subtitles… does that mean you speak Thai?”

“Yeah.”

“Ten, did you… um… did you learn Thai for m-me?” Yukhei couldn’t look at Ten so he was focusing on swirling what is left of his ice cream.

“What?” Ten almost chokes on his ice cream.

“Did you learn Thai… for me?” Yukhei still can’t look at Ten in the eye.

“Yukhei, sweetie…” Ten bursts out in laughter. “I’m Thai.”

“Wait, what?” Yukhei almost gets a whiplash from how fast he lifts his head up to finally look at Ten.

“I’m from Thailand. My full name is Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul but everyone calls me Ten.”

“W-what?”

“Yeah, sometimes Bambam calls me TNT, but he does that just to piss me off.”

“Who calls you what now?” Yukhei is still trying to process the fact that Ten is Thai, and now Ten is telling him that he knows Bambam. Then that means Bambam knew about this ever since Yukhei showed him the picture of Ten on his phone and he didn’t mention it to Yukhei. That bastard.

“Bambam. You know him. He did that presentation with you the day we met on the train.”

“W-wait, how do you know about that?” Yukhei starts to panic.

“Yukhei, you don’t exactly have the softest voice known to mankind. I’m pretty sure everyone in the train could hear you.”

“B-but you had headphones on… and I was speaking Thai.” Yukhei feels like nothing is real anymore. Everything he has ever known is a lie. Except maybe the feelings he has for Ten, but that’s irrelevant right now.

“I did, but they’re not the fancy noise-cancelling ones, and, once again, I speak Thai fluently.”

“So all this time, you were the guy that never came to the Thai students’ table for lunch...”

‘Yep.”

“So you aren’t just interested in Thai culture...”

“Well, it is my culture so…”

“So you understood all the memes I’ve sent you… even without me explaining them to you…” Yukhei thinks back to the first time he used 555 with Ten and how he explained that it meant he was laughing.

“Yep.”

“So Bambam didn’t have to explain those memes to me so that I could’ve explained them to you…” Yukhei remembers how annoyed Bambam was whenever Yukhei texted him, asking about a new meme he saw.

Ten laughs. “No, no, he did not.”

“This is so… embarrassing…” Yukhei hides his face in his hands. He can’t believe this. It was kind of obvious too.

Ten gets up from his seat and gives Yukhei a hug. “Nooo, don’t be embarrassed.” Ten pulls away from Yukhei and looks him in the eyes.

“I thought it was cute how you tried to explain to me all those memes and jokes. Although sometimes you do explain stuff incorrectly.”

Yukhei looks out the window to figure out their location. “Do you think the costume shop a few blocks from here is still open?”

“I dunno. Why?”

“I feel like I should be wearing a clown costume right now.”

Ten chuckles, cups Yukhei's face, and pulls it closer to his.

Even in his state of mortified shock, Yukhei realizes how close Ten's lips are getting to his own. He panics, closing his eyes shut. It’s only a quick peck, because Ten pulls away almost immediately after their lips touch, but for Yukhei, the feeling of Ten’s lips lingers much longer than it took for the ice cream to melt on his tongue. Yukhei can feel his cheeks burning and he sees that Ten’s blushing too.

“You kissed me.” Yukhei whispers.

“I did. S-sorry about that. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Ten is back in his seat and tracing the pattern on the tablecloth.

Trying to regain his composure, Yukhei preens. “You were probably thinking about what it would feel like to kiss me.”

That snaps Ten out of his shy spell. He snorts. “I won’t confirm or deny that.”

“Okay, but just know that I’m gonna assume that you were thinking about how good it would feel to kiss me.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, baby.” Ten gives Yukhei a patronising pat on the cheek.

“Knowing that we’re definitely dating will help me sleep better at night, no doubt about it.”

Ten leans his cheek on his hand, and considers Yukhei. “You know, I didn’t think I’d end up on a date with you.”

_What? _“What do you mean? I literally asked you out back when we first met and you rejected me.”

A smile spreads slowly across Ten’s face. “Actually, that wasn’t the first time we met.”

“What? That’s not true.”

“Yukhei, do you remember freshman week? When all the clubs had set up booths to get people to join?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“I was promoting the Thai Students’ Association, handing out flyers for Thai language classes, and you approached our booth, saying you were interested in signing up because you were half Thai. So I was telling you about the classes, and I was, like, half-way through my explanation, when someone else came up and whisked you away.” Ten pauses to pout. “You didn’t even apologise or anything. You just left me hanging. And you didn’t even take the flyer!”

Yukhei tries to recall his first semester, but it’s all a blur. He remembers the orientations. He remembers befriending Mark. But he can’t seem to remember what Ten is talking about. Yukhei has a vague memory of visiting a booth, meeting Kun-ge, and getting his first taste of the dumplings Kun-ge made, but that’s pretty much it.

“Do you remember what the person who whisked me away looked like?” Maybe if Ten described the other person, Yukhei might remember how this all happened.

“I think he was the same guy you were with during open mic night.”

“Open mic night? You were there too?” Yukhei is surprised at how he hasn’t gotten whiplash yet… or maybe he has. His head is spinning.

“I sung that night.”

This is too much information to process in one go. “I came late, so I didn’t get to see a lot of performances.”

“I wanted to say hi, but you were with that guy Mark, or something. You two were looking lovey dovey that night, so I thought you were in a relationship. When I asked Bambam about it, he said he didn’t know.”

Yukhei clenches his fist and mutters Bambam’s name.

“Since he said that you two had history, I didn’t want to steal someone’s boyfriend. For all I knew, you two might’ve decided to get together again.”

“Bambam said he doesn’t know you, though. What’s that about?”

Ten lets out an awkward laugh. “Oh, I told him not to tell you.”

“Why not?”

“I wanted to tell you myself during open mic night, I wanted to see how you would react when you found out that I’m Thai. But then Mark happened…”

“Oh. If it makes you feel better, Mark is seeing someone else, and so am I.”

“Is this you rejecting my feelings or—”

“I’m seeing this guy but I’m not sure what to call him.This whole time I’ve been calling him Ten, but his friends told me to call him TNT, and now he’s telling me his name is Chittaphon Leechaya-something?” Yukhei shrugs. “Maybe I’ll just call him that.”

“You’re gonna call me Chittaphon Leechaya-something? Who are you? The Thai government?”

“TNT then.”

Ten groans. “Please, no. Anything but that.”

“Why not?” Yukhei whines. “I wanna call you TNT, because you’re dynamite, babe!”

“You know what?” Ten gets up, and grabs his things. “I don’t think this is gonna work—”

“Oh, alrighty then.” Yukhei says as he picks up his phone to give someone a call. “Hello? Hi, Jaehyun-hyung, it’s Yukhei! I was wondering if you’re fr—”

Before Yukhei could finish, Ten grabs his phone and runs.

“HEY! YOU CAN’T JUST CUT THIS DATE SHORT AND THEN TRY TO CUT MY CONVO WITH JAEHYUN-HYUNG SHORT LIKE THIS!” Yukhei shouts before he starts to chase Ten around the store. At this point, everyone in the store is looking at the two of them acting like children.

“Uh, guys?” That Johnny guy yells out, making Yukhei and Ten stop in their tracks. “I’m gonna have to ask you two to leave.”

“Sorry, bro. I’ll just go make my call outside.” Yukhei says before grabbing his phone back from a distracted Ten.

Ten makes a sound of protest, but he turns his attention to Johnny again. “Sorry, hyung.” Ten says as he exits the store with Yukhei.

As soon as they the door closes behind them, Yukhei starts laughing. Ten frowns.

“What’s so funny? You made my friend kick me out of the store.”

Yukhei stops laughing to look Ten in the eyes. “Excuse me, it wasn’t my fault we got kicked out. You started it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t call Jaehyun.” 

“Yeah, that’s what’s funny. I didn’t even call him.”

Ten gasps. “I can’t believe you made me believe that you called Jaehyun!” Ten emphasizes each word with a smack on Yukhei’s arms.

Yukhei just laughs harder with every smack, even if his skin does start to sting. “You’re cute when you’re jealous,” he manages to say.

“Thanks.” Ten huffs.

Yukhei tries to catch his breath from laughing so hard, hand clutching his stomach. Ten finds a bench for them to sit on and calls Yukhei over, patting the empty space next to him. They sit in silence for a while, trying to catch their breath and just enjoying each other’s company. Yukhei’s the one who breaks the silence.

“Hey, Ten.” Yukhei nudges Ten with his elbow.

“What?” Ten turns around to look at Yukhei.

“I really like you.”

Ten’s face split into a smile. “I never would’ve guessed that."

“Do you like me too?”

“What are we? Elementary school students confessing to their crush for the first time?” Ten scoffs, and this makes Yukhei laugh. It’s not like they didn’t just get thrown out for acting like a couple of kids.

“Well, do you like me or not?” Yukhei asks again, wanting confirmation.

“Yeah, I do. I like you a lot.”

Yukhei makes eye contact with Ten. The flickering street lights reflect onto Ten’s eyes so beautifully, it’s like someone plucked the stars right out of the sky and placed them in his eyes.

Yukhei breathes in the moment before speaking again. “I’m not seeing anyone else right now. Are you?”

“Just you.”

Yukhei’s gaze drops to the bench. Ten’s hands are resting on his lap, palms up, like small, pale lotuses. “I don’t know what you’ve been hearing about me from Bambam, but I’m not as fickle as he seems to think I am.” Yukhei’s reaches out for one of those hands, and he runs his thumb over Ten’s knuckles, feeling one of the rings that adorn his delicate fingers.

“No, he didn’t say anything like that.” Ten smiles, ever so gently. He interlaces his fingers with Yukhei’s. “To me, it just looks like you have a weakness for beautiful people—”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

“Actually, so do I.”

Yukhei smiles. It's so easy for Ten to entice Yukhei into his kind, funny, passionate, honey-sweet _Ten_ trap, and Yukhei's fallen for it, time and time again. Yukhei had made it his mission to make it all the more sweet, not for himself, but solely for Ten.

This time, Yukhei realises that maybe Ten's been feeling the same way too. Yukhei thinks about the way Ten has quietly been telling Yukhei how he feels. From the way he gently nudges Yukhei to focus on his work, not just his feelings and his relationships, to how Ten softly encourages Yukhei to do his best. Yukhei decides that maybe it's time to let Ten show Yukhei how he feels a little louder.

"Do you want to see where this takes us?"

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on twitter @YUKTAR0!


End file.
